Processing units, such as graphics processing units (GPUs), include processing elements and a general purpose register (GPR) that stores data for the execution of an instruction. In some examples, a processing element executes instructions for processing one item of data, and respective processing elements store the data of the item or the resulting data of the item from the processing in the GPR. An item of data may be the base unit on which processing occurs. For instance, in graphics processing, a vertex of a primitive is one example of an item, and a pixel is another example of an item. There is graphics data associated with each vertex and pixel (e.g., coordinates, color values, etc.).
There may be multiple processing elements within a processor core of the processing element allowing for parallel execution of an instruction (e.g., multiple processing elements execute the same instruction at the same time). In some cases, each of the processing elements stores data of an item in the GPR and reads the data of the item from the GPR even if the data is the same for multiple items.